The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: April 21, 2010 4:39:21 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots

The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots
from the monopoly-money dept
<http://techdirt.com/articles/20100412/0102298960.shtml>

An article in The Economist from earlier this month highlights what many Techdirt readers know well: the current state 
vs the historical intent of copyright brought forward by The Statute Of Anne.
When Queen Anne gave her assent on April 10th the following year—300 years ago this week—to “An act for the 
encouragement of learning” they were less enthused. Parliament had given them rights, but it had set a time limit on 
them: 21 years for books already in print and 14 years for new ones, with an additional 14 years if the author was 
still alive when the first term ran out.

Thinking about the times, one could see how such a system might encourage the creation of more works of art.  An artist 
is given a limited time on which they have a monopoly on the production of copies of their works, a limited time for 
exclusively monetizing their works via those copies.  After 14, 21 or possibly 28 years, the author had better have 
another work available to copyright if they decide to continue living off the proceeds of their works.

But today's rules give no such incentive.  An artist that creates a popular work is almost guaranteed of being able to 
derive income from that single success well into their afterlife.  Not only is the artist not incentivized to continue 
their creation, some of their descendant generations can rest on their laurels, allowing lawyers to gather income for 
them -- often from well-intentioned future artists who actually are trying to create new work from the existing.

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